Unlike Letterman, Jay's show is good natured. He doesn't insult the guests or become fascinated with his own eccentric performance. Letterman's show is all about him, and it's not very funny. Neither show is really very original. Conan O'Brien is much more irreverent than either of these guys. I know! They should resurrect Ernie Kovacs and have him do a walk on every on every now and then. You could just look at him and laugh. He didn't even have to do anything.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
(1995–1999)
better than Xena
7 June 1999
Xena has her moments. Sadly, the show is mired in telling similar stories over and over again. More than not, Xena gets into a big fight, worries about Gabriel, and espouses some platitudes about giving up fighting and finding her true path through life. Hercules has been very inventive about killing off loved characters and exposing a mostly lay audience to different myths. While his solutions to most dramatic situations seem trite from time to time, it is important to keep one thing in mind: the show is camp and it doesn't have any pretentions about being something it's not. Cartoony sounds are par for the course, if you ask me.
A Time to Kill
(1996)
Garbage
6 May 1999
The black characters in this movie have very little screen time. The whole movie involves itself with the lives of the white characters. You have the lawyer, his prejudiced wife, his alcoholic mentor, his alcoholic colleague, his little rich-girl assistant, his secretary, and all the terrible people in the klan. Whatever happened to the black people? Isn't this story about them? This movie is about as immature as "Imitation of Life." In both films, the blacks are only there as token minorities. In the same way that Annie in IOL speaks the "truth" only when she's on her deathbed, Jackson's character speaks articulately from a jail cell. It's a convenient way of allowing the token black man a chance to say his peace and then move on with the film without him around.
Sandra Bullock was a waste in this movie. The little rich girl from up North must be beautiful because she's in this movie ONLY to provide sexual tension. There was absolutely no need for her to be in the movie. This was supposed to be a morality play about racism. Why do we need sexual temptation? What does ANY of that have to do with the plight of the black characters????
Mathew's speech at the end of the movie and the outcome of the court-room drama are not only unrealistic but insulting as well.
I hate morality plays from Hollywood. They always try to impose a mainstream perspective on everything they do. There was no drama or conflict in this movie
This movie panders to every pretentious Hollywood cliche about racism. There are so many better movies about there about these same topics. It's too bad that
the people who buy tickets for movies like these aren't willing to be challenged by more complicated cinema.
Sandra Bullock was a waste in this movie. The little rich girl from up North must be beautiful because she's in this movie ONLY to provide sexual tension. There was absolutely no need for her to be in the movie. This was supposed to be a morality play about racism. Why do we need sexual temptation? What does ANY of that have to do with the plight of the black characters????
Mathew's speech at the end of the movie and the outcome of the court-room drama are not only unrealistic but insulting as well.
I hate morality plays from Hollywood. They always try to impose a mainstream perspective on everything they do. There was no drama or conflict in this movie
This movie panders to every pretentious Hollywood cliche about racism. There are so many better movies about there about these same topics. It's too bad that
the people who buy tickets for movies like these aren't willing to be challenged by more complicated cinema.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
(1993–1999)
Great program
19 October 1998
I think DS9, all in all, has far surpassed the kind of quality programming that I came to expect from STNG. Instead of stilted and self-righteous characters, we are presented very human beings with all the foibles and flaws we would expect real people to display.
There isn't a happy ending to every show, and the decisions that people make aren't always the right ones. The stories have involved marriage, sex, war, religion, idolatry, politics, persecution, incarceration, drug addiction, slavery, and many other powerful themes. The politically correct attitudes of STNG didn't allow for most of these themes to be explored truthfully. Even the villiains haven't been trivialized.
The Klingons, Jem H'dar, and the Cardasians have been placed on equal footing with their Federation counterparts. In STNG, the "villains" were always prone to mistakes and moments of abject stupidity. The Federation always possessed superior moral systems as well as technologies. That kind of mentality DOES NOT exist on DS9.
DS9 inherited a whole vast array of gifted writers when STNG ended. I think it is a sign of the times that even these gifted writers, with their wonderful and introspective stories, and the talented and powerful actors on the show can't save it from the ratings axe. Even the wonderful "Trouble with Tribbles" episode was not enough to draw more viewers.
DS9 will be sorely missed, and I don't think that there will be anything in the near future that will be as well written or well acted. (Ms. Farrell really should have stuck around for the last season!)
There isn't a happy ending to every show, and the decisions that people make aren't always the right ones. The stories have involved marriage, sex, war, religion, idolatry, politics, persecution, incarceration, drug addiction, slavery, and many other powerful themes. The politically correct attitudes of STNG didn't allow for most of these themes to be explored truthfully. Even the villiains haven't been trivialized.
The Klingons, Jem H'dar, and the Cardasians have been placed on equal footing with their Federation counterparts. In STNG, the "villains" were always prone to mistakes and moments of abject stupidity. The Federation always possessed superior moral systems as well as technologies. That kind of mentality DOES NOT exist on DS9.
DS9 inherited a whole vast array of gifted writers when STNG ended. I think it is a sign of the times that even these gifted writers, with their wonderful and introspective stories, and the talented and powerful actors on the show can't save it from the ratings axe. Even the wonderful "Trouble with Tribbles" episode was not enough to draw more viewers.
DS9 will be sorely missed, and I don't think that there will be anything in the near future that will be as well written or well acted. (Ms. Farrell really should have stuck around for the last season!)
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